The Hot Springs star. (Hot Spings [Hot Springs], Dakota [Dakota Territory, i.e. S.D.]) 1886-189?, 1887-08-05

49, ~s
6sttef was very bad indeed.
why did you keep me- standing n tAe
coldi" he asked; ssyou know tie draughts
aeo death to me-"
II did not know Who'll Il lansWaeed
sYou are . late visitor"
ssYes; and I verify believs Il b my lass
VISIT" he answered, with . ghAstly a.
attempt at q smile. ~ am done tor, Holly
Lam done for. I do not believo that
0hall zee tomorrow"
"NonsenseW I said. sIet me- 70 bor q
DOCTOR"
He waved me back imperiously with his
hand. cit is sober sense; but I want no
doctors. Ihave studied medicine, and I
know all about It. No doctors can help
me-. Ny last hour has comet For Q year
past I have only lived by miracle. Now
listen to me as You never listened to any.
body before, for you will not have the OPP
portunity of getting me to repeat my words.
| We have been friends for two years;
now tell me how much do you know about
mef"
81 know that you are rich, and have had
q fancy to come to college long after the
age that most men leave It. know that
you have been married, and that your
wife died; and that you have been the best,
indeed, almost the only, friend I ever had
ibid you know that I have q soni"
no"
"Ihave. He is five years old. He cost
me his mothers life, and Ihave never been
able to bear to look upon his face in conse.
quence. Holly, IL you will accept the trust,
l am going to leave you the boys sole
guardian"
Isprung almost out Of my chair. "lfer,
said.
eyes, you. Ihave not studied you for
two years for nothing. Ihave known for
for some time that I could not last, and
since l realized the fact Ihavc been search.
ing for some one to whom 1 could confldc
the boy and this" and he tapped tho iron
box. you are the man. Holly; for, like a
rugged tree, you are hard and sound at
core. Listen; the boy will be the last sur.
vivor of one of the most ancient families
in the world, that is, rs fuy as families can
be traced. You will laugh at Inc when !
say it, but one day it will be proved to you
beyond II doubt that the founder of the
family my siNty-tifth or siXty-siXth lineal
ancestor, Was an Egyptian priest Of Isis,
though he was himself Of Grccian extrac.
ton, and was called Kallikrates, or the
Strong and Beautiful, or, to be still moro
accurate, the Beautiful in Strength His
father was, 1 believe, one of the Greek
mercenaries raised by Hakor, a Mendesian
prince of the twenty-ninth dynasty. In or
about the year $50 before Christ, just at
tho time Of the final fall Of tho Pharaohs.
this Kalliirates broke his VOWS of celibacy
and fed from Egypt with u princess Of
royal blood, who had fallen in love with
h{sn mud W. fff,nll1v ,,ynan1,osI mn thu
coast of Africa, somewhere, as 1 believe,
in the ~neighborhood of where Delagoa
Bay now is, or rather to the north Of 1t, he
and his wife being saved, and oil the re-
mninder Of their company destroyed in n
way or another. Here they endured great
hardships, but were ut last entertained by
the mighty queen of q savage people, q
white woman of peculiar l%oveliness, who,
under circumstances which l can not enter
into, but which you will one day learn, II
You live, from the contents of the box,
finally murdered my ancestor, Kallikrates.
His wife, however, escaped, how, l know
not, to Athens, bearing a child with her,
whom she named Tisisthencs, OF the
Mighty Avenger. Five hundred years OF
moro afterward the family migrated to
Rome under circumstances of which no
trace remains. and here, probably with the
idea of preserving the idea of vengeance
which we find set out in T%isisthencs. thev
appear to have pretty regularly assumed
the cognomen Of Vindex, or Avenger.
Here, too, they remained for another five
centuries or moro. till about 10 A. D., when
Charlemagne invaded Lombardy, where
they were then settled, wherein the head
Of the family seems to have attached him.
self to the great emperor, and to have re.
turned with him across the Alps, and final
~ to have settled in Brittany. Six gener.
atoms later his lineal representative
crossed to England in the reign of Edward
the Confessor. and in the time of William
the Conqueror was advanced to great hon.
or and power. From that time till the
present day I can trace mydescent without
q break. Not that the Vinceys-for that
was tho final corruption of the name after
its bearers took root in English soil-have
been particularly distinguished-they
never came much to the fore. Sometimes
they were soldiers, sometimes merchants.
but on the whole they had preserved dead
levelof responsibility, and stilldeaderl level
of mediocrity. From the time of Charles
II. till tie beginning of the present century
they were merchants. About 1870 my
grandfather made a considerable fortune
out of brewing, and retired. In 1921 he
died; and my father succeeded him, and
dissipated most of the money. Ten years
ago he died also, leaving me a net income
of about two thousand q year. Then II
was that I undertook an expedition in con.
nection with that" and he pointed to the
iron chest, (which ended disastrously
enough. On my way back I travelled in
the south of Europe, and finally reached
Athens. There 1 met my beloved wife,
who might we'll also have been called the
Beautiful like my old Greek ancestor.
There / married her, and there, q year at.
terward, she died."
He paused awhile, his head sunk upon
his hand. and then continued:
(ro be continually
a Thoughtful Pa.
Omaha World: Count Fortune.
nuntcr-Now that we are married.
never more to part, 1 want to ask YOU
If 1T was not IL great struggle for you
20 give up your luxurious home and
become the wife of IA comparatively
poor man. you know.
1(NI, M. -